Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Operating unit is an organization that is used to divide the control of economic resources and operational processes in a business. People in an operating unit have a duty to maximize the use of scarce resources, improve processes, and account for their performance.
In Microsoft Dynamics AX, the types of operating units include cost centers, business units, value streams, departments, and retail channels. The following table provides more information about each type of operating unit.

Operating unit type

Description

Purpose

Cost center

An operating unit in which managers are accountable for budgeted and actual expenditures.

Used for the management and operational control of business processes that span legal entities.

Business unit

A semi-autonomous operating unit that is created to meet strategic business objectives.

Used for financial reporting that is based on industries or product lines that the organization serves independently of legal entities.

Value stream

An operating unit that controls one or more production flows.

Commonly used in lean manufacturing to control the activities and flows that are required to supply a product or service to consumers.

Department

An operating unit that represents a category or functional part of an organization that performs a specific task, such as sales or accounting.

Used to report on functional areas. A department may have profit and loss responsibility, and may consist of a group of cost centers.

Retail channel

An operating unit that represents a brick and mortar store, an online store or an online marketplace.

Used for the management and operational control of one or more stores within or across legal entities.

Sunday, May 24, 2015

The next major version of Microsoft Dynamics AX (code named ‘Rainier’ or version ‘7’) should be released sooner. The general direction Microsoft is heading with all its products is ‘cloud first, mobile first’, with Dynamics AX 7 being no exception. This new philosophy espouses a vision of increasing the productivity of consumers and businesses through better delivery and usability of technology.

New Generation User Experience

Will be an attractive context-sensitive Windows 8 experience based on HTML5 technology. This represents a movement away from boring and bland ERP system interfaces towards a modern user experience that is light, web-oriented, and intuitive

Cloud First, Mobile First

Cloud first in Dynamics AX 7 translates to a new cloud optimized platform for both public and private deployments, but with an on-premises option too.

Mobile first means Microsoft believes that productivity is about empowering people and not simply enacting artificial technological walls that force people to work in predefined ways. Integrations between non-Microsoft products and devices will be such that there should be no difference in a user’s experience based on the mobile device they use, be it an iPhone, iPad, Android, or other type of device.

New browser-based interface

A browser-based interface will replace the current Windows Client making Dynamics AX capabilities available via new “work spaces,” promoting remote access across a variety of device platforms for enhanced collaboration.

SQL Azure for Cloud Deployments

Microsoft’s cloud platform, known as Azure, allows users to build, deploy, and manage different applications across global networks. Microsoft Dynamics AX 7 will use SQL Azure for cloud deployments.

Dynamics AX 7 will make available a single-tenant deployment model. Unlike the multi-tenant model, which promotes file and application sharing using the same software product, in the single-tenant model, each user gets a separate instance of software, which will run on an isolated piece of infrastructure. The single-tenant model uses Azure’s infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), which offers customers total control over virtual machines and network configurations.

On the other side, Microsoft Dynamics AX 7 deployed on SQL Azure will provide two major services: platform-as-a-service (PaaS) and database-as-a-service (DBaaS). Although the PaaS model doesn't allow you to control or manage the software and network servers, you’ll be able to customize the system and create new applications using the tools included in AX 7. In the DBaaS model, you can develop and manage applications without assuming the responsibility for database administration functions. Since Microsoft will manage the system and servers, you don’t need to hire IT personnel to maintain the database.

Dynamics AX 7 will also use Microsoft’s model-driven layered architecture (MDLA), which facilitates the development of individual application objects for each company. This means that you can develop your own tables, code units, reports, etc. according to your organization’s needs.

Visual Studio and .NET Framework:

The development environment will move to Visual Studio under the .NET framework, which will increase the consistency, experience, and availability of development tools.

Friday, April 24, 2015

During the upgrade process from Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 to Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 (Source to Target upgrade process), when running the Create tables task We might receive errors during the ‘Create tables’ step in the AX2012 Upgrade checklist. The errors were of the following format, and exceeded 10000…

CauseThe AX Server configuration was configured with the ‘-internal=comments –internal=nocursorreuse’ command. This setting is recommended by Microsoft for the duration of the upgrade, however, it needs to be set prior to executing the bulk copy scripts. The system errors out, if the setting is present during the ‘Create Tables’ step.SolutionRemoved the -internal=comments –internal=nocursorreuse command from the AX Server Configuration. (*added it back at a later stage in the upgrade process)

Friday, April 25, 2014

Next May 2014,
Microsoft will Release the new version of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 - R3 with
a lot of new functions and modules, one of the new functions that had been
added to Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 for retail is Call Center for managing Call
center department for Retail Organizations (Delivery orders and somebody call).
Microsoft have added the call center as a new type of retail channel in
Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3. New call centers and call center catalogs are
created in the Retail module. Many tasks that are related to the setup and
management of a call center are performed in the new Call center.

Features outlines

A new retail channel type is
added: call center. In a call center, workers take customer orders over
the phone and create sales orders. Call centers can be added to
organization hierarchies, and can be managed together with online stores
and retail stores.

You can create catalogs for
call centers, and use new catalog features.

You can associate details
with sales items. This feature lets you view additional information about
the selected line in the sales order form, such as images, purchase order
information, delivery dates, and other relevant text.

You can create scripts that
appear in the Sales order form at the time of order entry.

You can prompt the clerk who
enters sales orders to up-sell or cross-sell products.

You can set up and manage
continuity programs, in which customers receive regular product shipments
on a predefined schedule.

You can create orders from an
item list, which is a saved list of products that customers frequently
order together.

You can track the status of a
direct delivery purchase order via the associated sales order, and use the
direct delivery workbench to create and release purchase orders for direct
delivery. You can also specify products that are always sent to customers via
direct delivery.

You can perform full-text
searches for products in the Sales order form.

Precise control over pricing
for call center sales orders is available.

You can view the calculated
margin values for broker royalties and rebates in the sales order form.

Enhanced
payment functionality can be used for call center orders.

Default sales tax groups can
be used to create and view default priorities for calculating sales tax
groups.

You can create coupons that
can be applied to call center sales orders.

Installment payments can be
used in sales orders.

Broker support is available.

You can put sales orders on
hold.

You can set up an expedited
shipping mode that can be applied to a sales order or sales order line.

Automatic notification and
cancellation for backorders is available.

You can track sales order
events.

You can view detailed order
status.

You can attach notes to a
customer, order, or order line.

You can define letter
templates that can be used to generate personalized customer
communications.

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

With the release of Dynamics AX2012 R3, full warehouse
management and transportation management will be incorporated into the core AX
product. Some of the key elements of the new warehouse management functionality
are outlined below.

Integrated Data Collection / Bar-Coding

One of the most notable benefits of the new
functionality will be the ability to utilize hand-held data collection devices
(bar-code scanners) without the need to purchase 3rd party software.
This, of course, allows workers in the warehouse and on the production floor to
gain real-time access to Dynamics AX. The bar-coding devices will support
purchasing and receiving processes, inventory adjustments, transfers, and stock
counts, issuing materials to production orders and reporting production as
finished, as well as the pick, pack, and ship process.

Workflow and Process Optimization

Warehouse management functionality does, of
course, go beyond simple handheld data collection. Dynamics AX will now support
configurable workflows. These workflows can be used to optimize the receiving
and put-away processes, as well as the picking, packing, and loading of goods
for delivery to customers.

License Plate Numbers

Dynamics AX will now support full License
Plate Control, whereby pallets / containers can be assigned a unique license
plate number. When receiving or putting away an item, items can be assigned to
a specific license plate (i.e. to a specific container / pallet). Then, when
that container or pallet is transferred, shipped, or received at a new
location, the user need only indicate which license plate is being moved, and
all of the items stored on that container/pallet will be updated as well,
without having to individually identify them.